Byway Waysides

The Blues / Powel Point Overlook

The Blues Overlook sits across from the delicate pink limestone ledges of Powell Point, which rises to an elevation of 10,188 feet, and above “The Blues,” a badland of gray-green shales deposited some 80 million years ago when the area was covered by an inland ocean. Powell Point was named after John Wesley Powell, who led expeditions in the late 1800s to map this region which at that time was one of the last “blank spots on the map” of the continental U.S. Hidden within the slopes of “The Blues” is one of the best and most continuous records of Late Cretaceous life on the planet.